


unfold before you

by haipollai



Category: Captain America (Comics), Invaders (Marvel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cop!Jim, Cop!Namor, Housemates AU, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, M/M, Polygamy, Safe Sane and Consensual, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-01
Updated: 2013-09-01
Packaged: 2017-12-25 07:48:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/950551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haipollai/pseuds/haipollai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was sixteen when Namor first met him living on the streets around the warehouses with other homeless kids with no where to go.</p>
<p>He'd offered Namor a free night.</p>
<p>Namor had almost arrested him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unfold before you

The yelling wakes up the rest of the house. By the time Namor sticks his head in, Bucky has folded over in desperate giggles and Jim just has his head buried in his hands. 

"Do I want to know?" Namor sighs, seeming torn over which of them to address.

"Your- Bucky thought it was the wrong room." Jim pinches the bridge of his nose. The numbers on his clock glow 2:34, and his alarm is set to go off in three hours.

Toro is in the door frame now, shaking with silent laughter. "Not up for new things, Uncle Jim?"

"No," Namor, Steve and Jim all echo. Bucky makes a pained sound in the back of his throat.

"I'm going back to bed," Jim grumbles. "Which means everyone else get out." Namor thankfully steps up to usher them out, Bucky seems eager to go, still blushing bright red. Jim doesn't want to think about who he's going to end up with or whose room he thought he was even slipping into.

He buries his head under the pillow and tries to get some shut eye.

-

Steve wakes up when Bucky snuggles under his chin, smiling when Steve curls an arm around him. Namor must have just gotten up to get ready for work so Steve knows he has another two hours of sleep before he has to get up as well. Steve closes his eyes and lets himself doze. He'll wake up with half an hour to spare to give time to Bucky.

-

Namor runs his fingers down Bucky's spine.

"Morning," Bucky grins.

"Is it?" He presses a kiss to the crook of Bucky's neck, feeling the steady beat of his heart under his skin.

"Did you sleep?"

"Caught an hour in the break room." His eyes slip closed, relying on Bucky to hold him up. He won't admit how tired he is, the newest case has worn him out. He and Jim had been sent home to take a break before jumping back into it.

"Go catch a few more now." Bucky chastises.

"Smells too good."

"You're lucky Steve is already gone or I'd call him here to drag your ass to bed."

Namor snorts in amusement and finally extracts himself from around Bucky to trudge upstairs. He's out as soon as he hits the pillow. He realizes too late he should have set the alarm but his phone going off three hours later does the job well enough.

"Hey get up," Jim says. "The DNA guys have something."

"That's impossible, DNA takes-"

"I didn't ask for details, they want us back in the station."

"I will be there." He hangs up before Jim can talk anymore and slowly rolls out of bed. He can hear music playing in the kitchen and follows it to find Bucky bent over the table, scratching away at something. Namor shuffles past him to the fridge, hoping to find something to eat before heading out again.

"There's left over pancakes on the bottom shelf," Bucky says. Namor grunts in acknowledgment, and Bucky still grins, understanding. "Love you too."

-

Jim had met Bucky once before he officially met him. It had been out by the warehouses where all the cops had at least one friend among the junkies and hookers. Namor had driven into a seemingly random alley, turned off the car and waited. The sound of the police radio filled the space giving both of them an excuse to not say anything.

There came a soft tap on the window and Jim looked over to see a kid on the other side, hunched up in an oversized leather jacket. Namor freed his service weapon from it's holster just in case and opened the window.

"I told you to get out of here, Barnes."

"Yea well it's not that easy alright? And I got some shit for you so back off." Barnes shot a nervous glance down the alleyway and then leaned in so he was pressed closer to the car. "Novokov is moving something tomorrow night from the feel of it, though he's telling people in three days."

"Novokov?" Jim leaned in to be more a part of the conversation. "The drug dealer and gun runner?"

"You know another?" Barnes snapped. "Tomorrow night, Mackenzie."

"I need something more than your word to do anything about it," Namor said stiffly.

Barnes looked at Jim and then back. "If you get out of your car for ten minutes I can give you that."

Jim hadn't been Namor's partner for long, but long enough he could tell Namor wanted to. Needed to get out and get that proof. "Go, I'll watch the car. Just be quick."

Namor looked at him, looked like he was about to say something but then nodded and disappeared out of the alley, Barnes' hand in his.

He came back alone fifteen minutes later, his phone clutched tightly in one hand. He got into the car without a word and drove them away from the warehouses. Jim didn't see Barnes again for almost two years.

-

Steve sprawls on the arm chair when he gets home. Namor teases him sometimes about how exhausted he is sometimes after work, but today Namor just offers him a beer as he moves to one of the other armchairs. Bucky and Toro take up most of the couch, snapping at each other as they play some game. Steve tries to follow it but it's too much after staring at computer screens all day.

So he closes his eyes and takes a long drink of the beer. 

"You ok?"

He opens his eyes to Jim perched on the arm of the couch closest to him. His fingers rub together in the same way as one of Steve's co-workers, ex-smoker. "Yea. Long day."

"Being a graphic designer is exhausting," Namor adds.

"Fuck you," Steve says without any heat. "Deadlines coming up," he switches his focus back to Jim. "Boss is breathing down all our necks."

Jim looks like he's going to ask. His eyes dart to Namor and Bucky but he doesn't say anything. Steve doesn't volunteer either. It's complicated, even for them. In some way, Steve and Namor love each other but more like brothers. Deep and complementary, but without the sexual need. With Bucky- But with Bucky, Bucky's own needs have to be considered. Steve doesn't expect him to be in his bed simply because he has a bad day.

It's a constant ongoing negotiation.

So Steve closes his eyes again and drinks his beer.

-

Bucky stays up until three am when he finally comes into Steve's room and curls against his back, falling asleep almost instantly. There's no smell of sex or dampness from a shower. There's something else going on, but Steve resolves to ask in the morning and just tugs one of Bucky's arms around his waist.

He wishes he had some explanation for the way things were, some way to make it normal but there's nothing to do but hold onto Bucky.

They'll talk in the morning.

-

Out of everyone in the house - besides Bucky who stays at home most days - Toro is home first. He shuffles into the kitchen, his book bag hanging despondently over one shoulder.

Bucky looks up from his books and shoves over his bag of chips. Toro eyes them for a second before grabbing a handful.

"What are you studying?" His bag falls into one of the kitchen chairs with a heavy thunk and Toro shuffles around to the fridge. Bucky curls his hands around his coffee mug, leaning back and watching the dark liquid swirl. He'd stayed up late the night before, trying to get a few more pages of reading done. "Bucky?" Toro pokes him in the back of the head as he comes back to the table.

"GED," he answers nervously. It's one thing for Namor and Steve to know he never graduated high school, but Toro has been his friend without needing to know all the crap.

"Shit, seriously?" He leans over to look at Bucky's text. "Learning all of this in four years has been hard enough, I can't imagine having to cram it and take a test on all of high school."

Bucky smiles, a heavy weight lifting off his chest. "It's not exactly like taking a test on all of high school."

"Details. We can study together," he says around another mouthful of chips.

"Heathen." Bucky steals the chips back. "Yea ok. Some of this shit makes zero sense to me anyway."

-

Bucky was sixteen when he ran away from a father who didn't know how to handle the nightmares left over from war and took it out on his kids, and a mother who had been broken. He was sixteen when Namor first met him living on the streets around the warehouses with other homeless kids with no where to go.

He'd offered Namor a free night.

Namor had almost arrested him.

Sometimes he wonders if things would have been better or worse if he had been arrested. Probably to be sent back home once they IDed him.

If that would have been better or worse than the beatings from other runaways, from Novokov's men trying to instill some fear in the ever shifting population that stayed on their turf. 

When his thoughts eat at him too much, he goes to Namor, asks him to bring him home. And he gets it.

-

Namor draws patterns, maps, over Bucky's thighs. They'll have to move eventually but it's the last night before Jim and Toro move in. The last night they can fuck on the couch without fear of being walked in on. He's not sure why he extended the invitation, the house is already full with the three of the. But it had felt wrong to simply abandon his partner when he needed someone.

Namor looks up at Bucky, the long line of his throat leading up, open and exposed. Vulnerable. He's seen Bucky's skin, bruised to nasty shades of blue and yellow and green. And the trust he still has takes Namor's breath away. He has never been one to doubt that he deserves the good things in his life, he goes out everyday to try to do something to save people, he deserves some happiness at home.

But he never thought he would be the one to heal people.

"I'm gonna miss this," Bucky murmurs, rolling his shoulders and finally opening his eyes to look down at Namor.

"I assure you, the sex isn't going to stop."

Bucky chuckles, sounding like he's still out of breath and leans down to brush his lips against Namor's. "I mean the sex wherever we want."

"We'll manage." He pulls Bucky down for another kiss before Bucky slowly gets off, not ashamed of being nude in the middle of their living room. "Shower?"

Bucky shakes his head. "I-"

"Alone?" Namor asks before Bucky can try to stumble his way through an apology. "I understand." Bucky smiles in relief and leaves Namor sprawled on the couch. He's still there when Steve gets home and pokes his head in.

"Do you have plans for dinner?" Steve asks. Namor arches an eyebrow in a silent request to continue. "Was thinking we could go out. Last night and all." His lips turn up with the hint of a smirk. "Though I guess you two got started on that."

"Dinner sounds good."

-

The three of them take up most of the couch, Bucky has his head in Namor's lap and his feet in Steve's. Jim knows he's being let into a secret, something deep and personal. He turns back to watch the movie.


End file.
